Category: news

Are you sitting comfortably: Will technology sound the death knell for traditional broadcasters?

In August 2010, the end of the age of television as we know it was widely predicted.

The US pay TV market had suffered its first ever drop in subscribers. In the end the economy was roundly found to blame, with cable packages being sacrificed as families were forced to tighten their belts.

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But some commentators pointed to this as the inevitable result of the growth of on demand and over the top offerings available on the internet.

So is technology killing what we think of as traditional television – and taking pay TV operators with it?

It’s a confusing picture. Nielsen, who track US television viewing habits, have reported a drop in television ownership – albeit from 98.9% to 96.7%. DVD sales are falling, while Netflix recently overtook cable operator Comcast to become the biggest subscription video service in North America.

IMS Research however is predicting digital cable TV subscribers in the US will increase by 7.8m between 2010 and 2015.

Apple TV lets users watch streamed video from iTunes and ‘over the top’ services on their TVs

YouTube, Hulu, iPlayer, Netflix and other ‘over the top’ (OTT) services, not to mention illegal downloading, all offer alternatives.

Apple and Google have both launched OTT services that let consumers play online content through their televisions, although Google’s service is only available in the US.

We’re watching more video than ever before this way. But we’re also watching more television. What is less clear is where the broadcast industry is ultimately headed.

So what do those in the industry think lies in store?

Neil Gaydon is the chief executive of pay TV technology developer Pace. They manufacture set-top boxes and other technology for some of the world’s biggest cable and satellite operators.

He points to a rise in subscription figures over the last two quarters as proof that pay TV is healthier than ever.

“All the latest evidence is zero cord-cutting [using devices like laptops and tablets instead of TV sets] – zero, and actually all over the top is doing is providing other services,” he says.

Pace CEO Neil Gaydon says convenience and ease of use mean pay TV is still attractive to consumers

“And if you look at TV viewing figures, it’s the highest it’s ever been.”

He also points to the what he sees as the failure of Apple TV and Google TV to take off.

“The challenge to pay TV is greatly exaggerated – OTT has certainly pointed to the desire people have to watch what they want, when they want.

“What OTT hasn’t answered, it doesn’t have a business model yet that describes how it will make money.”

Mr Gaydon doesn’t see pay TV standing still. In his view, OTT has sounded a wake-up call to operators to develop hybrid services.

“The set-top box will morph into a media gateway,” he says.

“If you fastforward, and you think about the home of the future, you will have to have a hub, a media gateway, some form of device that’s going to manage a suite of services.”

Not everyone is quite so confident the set-top box will survive the change.

Suranga Chandratillake is the founder of blinkx, a video search engine and aggregator.

“Every device will have an internet connection as standard, that’s increasingly the case already. I think set-top boxes are a temporary business at this stage,” he says.

Suranga Chandratillake says that on demand is here to stay

Despite this, Mr Chandratillake is not predicting the end of television as we know it.

“I think that the device will live on, I think that we’ll continue to have large screen devices whether we call them TVs or not.

“But while linear will remain popular, I think you will see massive growth in on demand. I don’t know to what extent these two things are cannibalistic.”

The success of services like Netflix, he says, is proof consumers are willing to pay for reasonably priced services.

“I think partly we’ll pay for it through small upgrades to our satellite, cable or broadband bills.

“The other way is through advertising – there’ll be software or cloud services, you’ll use a lot of them for free, but you’ll be shown ads in the middle of them.

“I think though there are certain aspects of linear consumption that will remain with us. We’ll all still watch the World Cup final at the same time.”

Irdeto’s Christopher Schouten agrees.

“I think there’s some content that will always be best served in a linear fashion, and that’s definitely sports.

“We’ve seen a new category and that’s reality. People prefer to watch the X Factor as it’s happening, rather than after the fact.

“There’s still a lot of value in that kind of content, but I would argue it is diminishing.”

Irdeto is a global software security and media technology company. It has over 500 customers, mainly in the pay TV area.

Mr Schouten says most consumers still fall into the “TV traditionalist” category, who are happy with cable or satellite.

But this is changing.

“We clearly see other groups starting to splinter off into becoming what we call digital dabblers, people with a casual interest in media, but when they’re interested it has to be exactly what they want and it has to be on demand.

“And then there are the media die hards, it has to be on demand, flexible, personal and portable.

“I think the over the top experience has been very beneficial to the market, because it has stimulated traditional pay TV operators into waking up, and realising consumers want a more on demand experience, that meets the criteria of what we call media 3.0, this anytime, anywhere content experience.”

All of this is also dependent on where you are in the world however.

Christopher Schoulten: “Being able to consume content on any device in any place… is the end game that we’re all trying to create.”

“If we look at industry trends, there are many markets where broadband is not yet as advanced, where [the set-top box] will be the dominant model for some countries.”

Illegal downloading remains a threat, according to Mr Schouten, but he encourages customers to see it in terms of a competitor. One they can learn from.

“For the advanced customer there are three major competitors. There’s pay TV operators, over the top and piracy.

“When we as an industry give consumers a legitimate option that meets their requirements, many of them will pay for it. Giving people what they want is always the best way to get them to behave differently.”

So it seems the future may be a bit of a mixed bag.

“There is still a groundswell of people that come home and turn on the TV to watch regular programmes at a regular time. A lot of people still build their home life around that sort of thing,” says Paul O’Donovan, of technology research specialists Gartner.

“The pay TV market will change from the multiple channels we have today. Out of 300 channels most people only watch seven, but dip into others.

“Clearly people like on demand, and there’s been a lot of uptake and interest.

“I think the future is more about video on demand, and watching content when you want to watch it.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Jedward performed their song Lipstick at the Eurovision semi-final in Germany

Irish teen twins Jedward will compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in Germany after winning through the semi-final stage on Thursday night.

John and Edward Grimes, 19, who found fame on The X Factor, performed the song Lipstick in the run-off.

They will be among 25 acts in the grand final on Saturday, also including the group Blue singing I Can for the UK.

Ireland, with seven wins, is the most successful country in the contest’s history but has not won since 1996.

Jedward were dressed in eye-red sparkly jackets with big shoulders, and black trousers.

Before their performance on Thursday, the twins said they were not nervous at the prospect of singing before their biggest ever audience.

The pair promised to be “the Pavarotti of Eurovision”.

Jedward were not the only twins performing, as Daniela and Veronika Nizlova represented Slovakia under the name TWiiNS.

However, they were not so successful and missed out on a place in the final in Dusseldorf.

Twenty successful entrants from two semi-final heats will be joined by the “big five” countries – Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK – who qualify automatically.

Newly reformed former chart-toppers Blue will be the 14th act on stage on Saturday.

British group Blue are already in Dusseldorf preparing for the grand final on Saturday

The group’s Simon Webbe told the BBC: “We’re in it to win it, for sure.”

Last year’s winner Lena will again represent Germany, with the song Taken By A Stranger.

However, Israel’s Dana International, who has also won the contest before, failed to make it through Thursday’s semi-final.

Jedward were one of the hits of 2009’s The X Factor despite not winning the series.

The twins signed to Sony and released their debut single Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby), a duet with rapper Vanilla Ice, in January of the following year. They switched record labels to Universal in March 2010.

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The report said the agency did use intelligence well in some cases relating to drug seizures

There are failings in the way the UK Border Agency uses intelligence to tackle illegal immigration, a report by its independent chief inspector says.

John Vine said officials used tip-offs inconsistently and did not always track the outcome of allegations.

He also warned some staff could be disproportionately targeting some nationalities.

Ministers say the UKBA’s “intelligence-led” approach is focusing resources where they were most needed.

The agency receives about 100,000 pieces of intelligence a year, often reports of people working illegally.

But the report said the agency couldn’t say how much of this information led to investigators apprehending illegal workers, or those trying to enter the UK unlawfully.

“There is a real need for the agency to focus more rigorously on the actual outcome of intelligence,” said Mr Vine.

“There is insufficient understanding across the agency of the role that intelligence should play and whether or not it is the driving force for meeting objectives.

“The agency should have a clearer idea of how the use of intelligence contributes to preventing and detecting immigration and customs offences.”

Mr Vine said the inspection had found examples of the UKBA using intelligence well, such as in some drug seizures. But there were instances where it was not clear what had been achieved.

In one case, the UKBA was tipped off that a dozen people were arriving on student visas from Sri Lanka, intending to work illegally. But the agency had no record of whether officers had identified the suspects and what had happened to them.

“Overall, the agency was not able to identify the proportion of allegations that had resulted in people being prevented from entering the UK or which had led to enforcement action,” said the report.

“In the absence of this data, it makes it very difficult to judge how significant allegations are to the effective identification of offenders, the level of resources that should be devoted to handling allegations and the most effective systems to facilitate this.”

At some ports, frontline staff were using different methods to identify suspects – but there was no evidence that the range of techniques were being evaluated to see if they led to more legitimate stops.

This meant it was not clear whether some staff were using “knowledge and experience” to identify suspects or simply discriminating on basis of nationality or ethnicity.

The agency is currently cutting 20% of its spending. Mr Vine’s report reveals that it is reducing the number of seconded police officers from 220 to 60, replacing them with its own staff.

Immigration minister Damian Green said: “Enforcement activity is the cornerstone of our new immigration system and our intelligence-led approach means we are working smarter; focussing resources where they matter the most.

“We have already launched two nationwide campaigns to close bogus colleges, tackle illegal working and reduce sham marriages. Using intelligence from a variety of sources, including members of the public, we carried out 1,400 arrests, 330 prosecutions and 260 removals.”

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Eman in the workshop with one of her dressmakers

When a woman is seen in public in Saudi Arabia, her body must be covered by a long flowing garment, an abaya. Traditionally these are plain black – but at least one designer has other ideas.

One of the first things that women coming to Saudi Arabia have to do is go abaya shopping.

The abaya is the long, black cloak that all women have to wear by law when out in public. It’s different from the burka, which is also widely worn, as it leaves the face and hair uncovered.

Abayas have been around for thousands of years.

Bedouin tribes wore them for protection from the harsh weather conditions in the desert. Now though, they are associated with religion, and are worn by Muslim women to protect themselves not from the weather, but from the eyes of men.

Many foreign women living in Saudi find abayas uninspiring and cumbersome. The trailing material, designed to cover the ankles, has a tendency to get caught in doors and trolleys – an ambassador’s wife told me she’d broken her toe twice tripping over it.

They can also be very hot. At the height of summer, temperatures in Saudi reach about 50C, so a long, dark robe is the last thing you feel like putting on.

But change may be coming.

At the exclusive shop run by designer Eman Al-Mandeel, I was taken aback by flashes of colour and exotic fabrics. Her abayas fully cover the body, but anonymous black cloaks they are not.

Quietly, over the past few years, an abaya evolution has been under way thanks to Eman and others.

A talented painter, Eman began making her vibrant gowns 12 years ago when living in Dubai. There, as in some other parts of the Gulf, it’s not unusual for women to wear navy blue or brown abayas, and her ideas fell on fertile ground.

Saudi law states women must wear abayas in public

Eman started wearing her own designs, and after a while people started asking her to make abayas for them.

Moving to Riyadh, one of Saudi Arabia’s most conservative cities, it was far from clear whether there would be a market for her work. Here, black abayas with little or no embellishment are still the norm – but against the odds, Eman’s creations have won lots of fans.

Many Saudi VIPs wear them – they are some of the few that can afford them. The average price is £250 ($400), and some designs sell for as much as three times that.

Eman creates each one using bright fabrics she finds on her travels – silks from India, ribbons from the United States and lace from Dubai.

Eman now sells on average 55 abayas a month from her Riyadh shop. She invites her customers to choose from her materials, then creates a design that fits their style.

But there are stories of the religious police, the Muttawa, confiscating colourful abayas. Is she worried about them coming into her shop, and telling her off for making her designs too eye-catching?

“Well, my shop is women only,” she laughs. “So they cannot come in.”

Then, she quickly and earnestly points out that she has no issue with the religious police. She respects their job and is aware of what is appropriate attire for Saudi women.

She sources fabrics on her travels

Eman believes she is not doing anything wrong by creating colourful clothes, she’s just bringing the traditional abaya up to date.

“All generations have worn abayas,” she says. “We see how our mothers and grandmothers wear them.

“And each generation, we want to improve the style to fit with the times, while still remaining respectful to our culture.

“I want my abayas to be an extension of a woman’s personality. They don’t have to go away from their purpose to do that.”

Many of her designs feature colours against a dark background, and sometimes the colours are very bright.

“You have different outfits for different occasions,” she says.

“I would wear a bright one for a party and a less showy one for shopping.

“You see my abaya is what I want to show off to other women. I have more than 30.”

I only have two, I tell her. She looks at me as though I’m deprived.

Eman wants more Saudi women to adopt colourful abayas as a statement of their identity.

“You can not change a country in one or two years,” she says thoughtfully. “But each year I can see Saudis getting that little bit more accepting… My aim is to make Saudi women look like individual members of society.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Willie Rennie is expected to be the only candidate for the leadership

One of the Liberal Democrats newest MSPs is expected to declare his intention to be the party’s next leader at Holyrood.

Willie Rennie, a former MP, was elected to represent the Mid Scotland and Fife region in last week’s election.

He served as MP for Dunfermline and West Fife between 2006 and 2010, before losing the seat to Labour last year.

He is expected to be the only candidate for the position following the resignation of Tavish Scott last week.

Mr Scott resigned on Saturday after the party’s disastrous night at the polls , which saw the number of Liberal Democrat MSPs drop from 16 to five.

The other Lib Dems making a return to Holyrood are Alison McInness, on the North East list, and Jim Hume in the South of Scotland.

Mr Rennie, who is a former parliamentary aide to the Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, was also a member of the House of Commons defence select committee, shadow defence minister and chairman of the Lib Dems campaigns and communications committee.

Tavish Scott’s resignation came after that of Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray. Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie has also announced her intention to resign in the autumn.

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Syrian authorities are among those to have cracked down on protesters

A fightback by repressive governments is putting at risk a historic struggle for freedom and justice in the Arab world, Amnesty International says.

Publishing its annual report, the rights group highlights the fight for control over communications technology.

It criticises Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen for targeting peaceful protesters to stay in power.

And it says repressive regimes in China, Iran and Azerbaijan have tried to pre-empt uprisings.

The campaign group released its report on human rights around the world following months of mass demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa.

Long-serving presidents in Tunisia and Egypt have been toppled, but leaders in other states have tried to face down protests with a combination of political concessions and the use of force.

Amnesty said the outcome of the uprisings was “on a knife-edge”.

Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International, paid tribute to youthful protesters who were “standing up and speaking out in the face of bullets, beatings, tear gas and tanks”.

“This bravery – combined with new technology that is helping activists to outflank and expose government suppression of free speech and peaceful protest – is sending a signal to repressive governments that their days are numbered,” he said.

“But there is a serious fightback from the forces of repression. The international community must seize the opportunity for change and ensure that 2011 is not a false dawn for human rights.”

Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, which have resisted anti-government movements, “have shown a willingness to beat, maim or kill peaceful protesters to stay in power”, Amnesty said in a statement.

And it pointed to a “critical battle” for control of access to information, means of communications and networking technology.

“Governments are scrambling to regain the initiative or to use this technology against activists,” the group said.

It called on companies that provide internet access, mobile communications and social networking sites to respect human rights and not become accomplices to repressive governments.

Amnesty’s main report documents the state of human rights in 157 countries and territories worldwide during 2010. The group also published a special update on the Middle East and North Africa in the first four months of this year.

In its report Amnesty raises concern over:

conflict wreaking havoc in a number of sub-Saharan African states, including the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somaliaa deteriorating situation for activists in Ukraine, Belarus and Kyrgyzstana growing willingness by European countries to send people back to states where they risk persecutionincreasing threats to indigenous peoples in the Americas

Amnesty also pointed to gains, including the release of political prisoners and the dissolution of internal security forces blamed for repression in Tunisia and Egypt.

The main report noted the steady retreat of the death penalty, improvements to maternal health care in countries including Indonesia and Sierra Leone, and progress in bringing to justice those responsible for abuses under Latin American military regimes.

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Nick Watney hits a sensational eight-under-par 64 to take the first-round lead at the Players Championship.

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US officials have said government and private systems are attacked millions of times per day

The White House has proposed legislation to protect the country from cyber attacks by hackers, criminals and spies.

Under the plan, companies that run infrastructure like power plants and financial systems would get incentives to make sure their systems are secure.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would also have the authority to impose its own security on industry.

Similar legislation is already being discussed by Congress.

US officials have said government and private systems are attacked millions of times per day.

The plans are designed to counter threats such as foreign nations attempting to steal sensitive data and computer hackers attacking financial institutions.

The White House proposal would empower the DHS to step in and develop security systems for institutions like financial and energy firms, if US officials felt the companies failed to have adequate measures.

An independent organisation would then be brought in to evaluate the security measures.

Some business leaders have said they would prefer a voluntary programme rather than government mandates.

The administration hopes the bill will be passed this year.

But other critics say the plan is too weak and lacks a sense of urgency.

Former senior Homeland Security official Stewart Baker told the Associated Press news agency: “It tells even critical industries on which our lives and society depend that they will have years before anyone from government begins to evaluate their security measures.”

Various House and Senate committees have been working on cyber security legislation for the past two years, waiting for the Obama administration to propose its own version.

The two proposals differ in that the House and Senate want the White House cyber co-ordinator to be subject to Senate confirmation, while the White House has rejected that idea.

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A hotel for chickens, the world’s fastest hearse and a pickled person. It’s the week’s weird and wonderful video stories in Newsbeat’s Odd Box with Tulip Mazumdar.

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Osama Bin Laden was planning fresh, spectacular attacks on the US mainland, US officials say, citing his seized journal and other files.

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Many residents are questioning the standard of construction in their town

Thousands of people have fled the Spanish town of Lorca following an earthquake that left nine people dead and damaged hundreds of buildings.

Many residents have gone to stay with friends and family in other areas, some because their homes are unsafe and others fear aftershocks.

Troops and emergency workers have put up hundreds of tents for about 3,000 homeless people still in the town.

Funerals for some of the victims are due to be held on Friday.

The magnitude-5.2 quake struck the southern town on Wednesday evening, about two hours after a quake measuring 4.4.

The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in Lorca says almost every building in the town has been damaged.

On Thursday some residents were briefly allowed back into their homes to salvage what belongings they could from the rubble. Spanish TV pictures showed many were in tears.

Inspection teams are going house to house assessing the damage before declaring which buildings are safe to return to.

Our correspondent says some residents are starting to question the quality of the building work in their homes. Initial feelings of fear and panic are giving way to a mood of deep frustration, she adds.

Shops, restaurants and schools have been closed and a steady stream of cars was leaving the town in Murcia region.

Bulldozers have been clearing streets of rubble and crushed cars. Many ancient buildings were among those badly damaged.

Many of those residents left behind are immigrant labourers who have nowhere else to go.

Unemployed Ecuadorean farm worker Luis Vazquez spent the first night camping in a supermarket car park with his wife, daughter and four other families.

He said his apartment had been badly damaged and that he would soon have to ask for help.

Those left behind have been queuing for tents, food and drinks

“I can’t care for my family without money, and now without a house,” he said.

People in towns and cities across Spain marked a minute’s silence on Thursday in memory of the victims.

Thirty people remained in hospital, three in a serious condition. The dead included one child, the regional government’s health department said.

An open-air funeral mass is to be held in the town on Friday morning, attended by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Crown Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia.

The Spanish government has deployed about 800 personnel to the town, including emergency units, troops and police, Mr Zapatero said.

Spanish seismological experts are predicting smaller aftershocks over the next month in the area, which lies close to the geological fault line separating Europe and Africa.

Luis Suarez, president of Spain’s College of Geologists, said the quake should not have been strong enough to bring down buildings and the scale of the damage must have been due to pre-existing structural problems.

He said the area’s sandy soil also made the impact worse.

It was the deadliest tremor to hit Spain since 1956 when an earthquake killed 11 people in Albolote, Granada.

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The Afghan intelligence services say so many bombings are being carried out that the insurgents have to recruit child “martyrs”.

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The Football Association appoints a leading QC to review allegations of misconduct by Fifa officials during England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid.

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Drugs can reduce the risk of the HIV virus spreading

An HIV positive person can reduce the risk of spreading the virus to uninfected partners by 96% if they are given anti-retroviral drugs immediately, according to the United States National Institutes of Health.

Its study looked at 1,763 couples in which only one partner was infected with HIV.

It was abandoned three years early as the trial was so successful.

The World Health Organisation said it was a “crucial development”.

The study began in 2005 at 13 sites across across Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Patients were split into two groups. In one, HIV infected partners were immediately given a course of anti-retroviral drugs.

The other group only received the treatment when their white blood cell count fell. Both were given regular testing for the virus and free condoms.

Among those immediately starting anti-retroviral therapy there was only one case of transmission.

In the other group there were 27 HIV transmissions.

“This breakthrough is a serious game changer and will drive the prevention revolution forward. It makes HIV treatment a new priority prevention option,” said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS).

The World Health Organisation says sexual transmission accounts for 80% of all new HIV infections. Its director general, Dr Margaret Chan, described the announcement as a “crucial development”.

She added: “The findings from this study will further strengthen and support the new guidance that WHO is releasing in July to help people living with HIV protect their partners.”

The value of anti-retrovirals, in preventing transmission, had been speculated for some time after observational studies, but researchers say this is the first time it has been proven in clinical trials.

Keith Alcorn, from the NAM charity, said: “This study resoundingly confirms what lots of smaller studies have been telling us for several years.

“International donors cannot ignore the evidence any longer: HIV treatment is a very powerful form of HIV prevention, and could have a major effect on the HIV epidemic in the worst-affected countries.

“What we need now is a renewed commitment to HIV treatment, and studies to show how to get the maximum benefit out of this breakthrough at country level.”

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The cash and assets were recovered via powers outlined in the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca)

Gwent Police says it has seized enough cash and assets from criminals over the past five years to fund five new jobs.

Each year police forces receive a proportion of the money they confiscate from career criminals, to fight crimes that blight communities.

This year Gwent seized £1.6m, £400,000 of which will fund one new post and tackle drug dealers and paedophiles.

Head of CID Ch Supt Ray Wise said losing cash was often more of a deterrent to criminals than prison.

The cash and assets were recovered via powers outlined in the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca).

The money recovered from criminals via the courts is paid to the Home Office, which then redistributes some of the cash to agencies such as the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Criminal Justice Board.

In the five years since the Home Office launched its incentivisation scheme, Gwent has recovered enough cash to add five investigators, bringing its financial crime unit to 14.

This latest round will also pay for a new high-tech criminal investigator, to crack down on paedophiles using the internet to target vulnerable children and young people.

The rest will go towards the force’s Operation Prudent, which aims at taking drugs off the streets in the Gwent force area.

Ch Supt Wise said it had been a particularly good year for the financial crime unit.

He told BBC Wales: “Those who make money from crime can become icons in their local community.

“People on local estates with no visible form of income driving round in new cars, walking round in bling and enjoying plasma screen TVs – when we are able to seize those cars and luxury items and even seize their houses. That’s a better form of justice for people to see sometimes.

“We have found that a prison sentence can be viewed as an occupational hazard by some criminals.

“The idea of career criminals paying for police and investigating career criminals – I think the irony of that is fantastic and fully supported by the public.”

The investigators and police work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to carry out inquiries into the lifestyle and financial affairs of convicted criminals.

The Poca helped enable Gwent Police to seize assets from a man who lured girls as young as 14 into prostitution and earned £529,000 from sex parties with girls he recruited via the internet.

Last year Wayne Baker, 61, of Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, was jailed for 11 years after admitting 22 sex offences involving young girls at Newport Crown Court.

Wayne Baker lied about his age in teenage internet chatrooms, duping victims with the promise of work as models

He was ordered to pay more than £135,000 from his assets or face another three years in jail.

Ch Supt Wise added that it was down to the individuals being investigated to prove they had come by their lifestyle and luxury items lawfully.

He added: “If you commit armed robberies or deal drugs and that gives you a luxury lifestyle then prison is not a big deterrent. However, if you know that lifestyle won’t be there when you get out, that can have a greater impact.”

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Simon Prince added: “Our message to offenders is simple – crime does not pay.

“Gwent Police will pursue you through both the criminal and civil courts and any assets you may have will be taken from you.

“The force works closely with partner agencies to ensure that anyone making money through their offending will not only face conviction and possibly jail, but will also be prevented from enjoying the fruits of their criminality.”

Gwent Police said anyone wishing to pass on information about criminal activity should call them on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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